Sheathing tape is widely used in the construction industry to secure sheets of house wrap together, to seal joints in foam insulation, to repair tears and rips in construction materials that include vapor barriers, to improve the energy efficiency of the structure and for other similar purposes. If sheathing tape fails, for example along a seam of house wrap on an exterior wall of a house or other structure, water and air may penetrate through the barrier formed by the house wrap and reach the wall, creating a significant risk of damage from mold, wood rot, and other moisture-related problems as well as a loss of energy.
Given the variety of house wraps and other construction materials which may serve as a substrate for sheathing tape, each with its own unique physical characteristics, the performance (i.e. adhesion strength) of a given sheathing tape may vary depending upon the particular substrate to which the sheathing tape is adhered. To that end, it is desirable to have a device and method for testing a seal strength of various tape-substrate combinations in a controlled setting.